According to Buddha, it’s better to travel well than to arrive. Or simply, ‘It’s Better to Travel’, if you prefer the title of the 1987 Swing Out Sister album. Sure enough, I love to travel and even though I’m writing this in the early days of spring, my heart and mind are already planning ahead to summer vacations. Part of the process, for me at least, is deciding on what camera gear to take along for the ride. Decisions, decisions.
I’ve been testing and reviewing cameras, lenses and photographic accessories for a quarter of a century now, and have been a keen photographer for twice that long, so I’ve built up a sizeable arsenal of camera kit over the years. The collection includes some seriously heavyweight items but I do love to travel light. I also love the look and feel of a ‘real’ camera, and my travel companion of choice is my trusty, lightweight and delightfully retro Nikon Z fc.
Naturally, a camera body is a fat lot of use without lenses to go with it and my dynamic duo in this respect pair the amazingly compact yet capable Nikon Z DX 16-50mm and Nikon Z DX 50-250mm zoom lenses. Both of these are real space-savers with their retractable designs, the standard zoom even qualifying as a ‘pancake lens’ when it’s retracted.
So what don’t my pair of zooms bring to the party? Sure, they team up to give great versatility, with a combined zoom range of 24-375mm in full-frame terms. But even the most wide-angle extremity on offer can leave me feeling a bit blinkered.
Travel has a habit of serving up epic photo opportunities. There are sweeping landscape vistas, vast cityscapes and amazing architectural interiors, to name but a few. These often include views that are far to big to squeeze into a standard zoom lens. And when the sun goes down, the entire night sky beckons, taking on magical proportions if you’re traveling away from the pollution of urban areas.
What’s needed to complete my trio of lenses is an ultra-wide-angle prime or zoom. But here’s the problem. This kind of lens is usually big, heavy, cumbersome, expensive and all of the other things that are not in the least travel-friendly. But I’ve discovered a secret weapon in the diminutive size, weight and shape of the Viltrox AF 9mm f/2.8 Air. This remarkable prime lens for APS-C format cameras comes in Fujifilm X, Nikon Z and Sony E mount flavors.
The Viltrox 9mm is Air by name, Air by nature. It’s impossibly small and light for an ultra-wide prime, measuring just 65x57mm / 2.6x2.2in and weighing a mere 175g / 6.2oz. It’ll literally fit in a spare coat pocket yet offers a gigantic 113.8-degree viewing angle that can pull huge areas into view. Better still, the asking price is similarly lightweight at just $199 / £190 / AU$299. Bargain! I’m off to start packing.
